Hughes on Life in 2033

Freshly Squeezed with Colin McEnroe
The Future’s So Bright, You Gotta Wear Shades.

OK, so you never did get that jetpack. Still, you’re stepping into a future of dazzling innovation and peril. What’s coming—and soon—is a world in which people can reasonably expect to live to 120, in which humans will voluntarily undergo amputations and implantations to get better arms, legs, ears and eyes. A world in which skin—prone to wrinkling, injury and cancers—will be replaced by a self-repairing biosynthetic fabric containing nanorobots. Artificial intelligence will accelerate, gradually approaching the so-called “singularity” when a machine will have some awareness of itself. How will we hold onto ourselves? What are the challenges to our inner life as our outer world transforms itself? How do we avoid becoming a society of genetically modified haves and have-nots? How will other institutions—in religion, philosophy, and the arts—respond to scientifically driven change? Join us for a lively onstage conversation featuring James J. Hughes, futurist, sociologist and bioethicist on the faculty of Trinity College, and Gualberto Ruano, scientist, inventor and Hartford Hospital’s director of genetics. Other panelists to be announced. Get your tickets today.